Welcome to the new Hot Air!

posted at 10:12 am on February 18, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

Yesterday was a travel day for me, so I missed a lot of the commentary on the acquisition of Hot Air by Salem Communications, the conservative radio network that features such luminaries as my friend and mentor Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, and Michael Medved, and who bought Townhall from the Heritage Foundation several years ago. The commentary ranged from the objective, in Andy Barr’s straightforward reporting at Politico, to the hysterical at The Atlantic Wire, where Max Fisher described our comment thread as “turn[ing] ugly” after someone remarked that selling Hot Air was like “Dylan going electric,” and someone else replied “Yeah, electric accordion.” (I laughed out loud when I read that.) I’ve seen more pungent remarks in humpbot threads; I’m not sure what was ugly about normal concerns that arise with any acquisition. I’ve been through a few of them in my previous career, and change is universally unsettling.

If readers are unsettled, you can imagine how Allahpundit and I felt when we heard about the potential sale. After all, we provide almost all of the content for the site, and it’s not exactly a secret that we occasionally criticize the Right as well as the Left, and sometimes the center, too. We offer offbeat content from time to time that may not be the favorite of a network that bases itself on conservative and Christian themes. The questions being asked in the comments sections are the same that we brought to our meetings in Colorado Springs earlier this month.

What I can tell you is that Salem bought Hot Air because, if you’ll pardon a Sally Field moment here, they like us — they really, really like us. After all, they aren’t going to spend a boatload of cash (and no, I don’t have any idea what kind of boatload that might be) just to turn Hot Air into something completely different. If they wanted something completely different, they could have started something fresh with a lot less cost and competed against us instead.

When we negotiated our new relationships with Salem, both of us stressed the need to have the same editorial control and direction for Hot Air. Not surprisingly, Salem readily agreed. Now, they still own the business and can intervene when they see fit — just as Michelle could, but rarely if ever did — but they know us and our editorial choices. We clarified the process and the direction to our satisfaction. If we weren’t satisfied that we remained in position to maintain the current direction of Hot Air, neither of us would have stuck around. We did, and we’ll be around for a while, too.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be changes, of course, but most of those will be to broaden our impact and reach. Salem has a tremendous presence with its radio hosts, for instance, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see some synergy applied in that direction. Townhall, now our sister site, will remain separate from Hot Air, but we’ll probably have some opportunities to participate more often in the magazine in the future. I’m very excited about the potential for growth at Hot Air by being a part of the Salem family.

But that being said, I’m sad to leave Michelle Malkin’s family after two wonderful years at Hot Air. I don’t think I’m revealing any secrets by telling readers what a caring, sweet, and big-hearted person Michelle is. Working with her and her husband Jesse (who carried the weight of technical and human-resource management like a champ) has been the best professional situation of my life. We both told the Salem execs when we first met with them that they had very large shoes to fill, but as great as they’ve been, it will never be quite the same. Now we get to focus on being friends with the Malkins, and thanks to their many kindnesses over the past two years, we hope that lasts much longer.

For the best takes on the sale, read James Joyner and Jazz Shaw. Jazz’ conclusion is spot-on:

So now a new owner will pay the bills at Hot Air. It sounds, from what I’ve found out, like a good deal for all concerned thus far. Ed and AP will retain their platform and possibly even gain some new exposure options in a large network. Malkin gets rid of a well loved but time consuming project which she branded as a leading conservative voice. Salem picks up another outlet which is widely read on the Right side of the aisle without dictating the tone. (If they wanted to do that they could have simply offered Ed and AP a column at Town Hall.)

Don’t read too much into this. Businesses change hands all the time and the names on ownership papers and paychecks shift every year across the land. Hot Air will remain and you can all be the judges as to whether or not the quality remains at the current level. I for one have no doubt but it will.

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Comments

I just hope that HotAir.com never gets as trollified as Townhall.com did in its early years. The trolls seemed to take over Townhall at one point. That’s when gave up on Townhall, and didn’t go back. I’m hoping HotAir and Townhall can learn from each other’s experience, and I wish them many years of success.

After all, they aren’t going to spend a boatload of cash (and no, I don’t have any idea what kind of boatload that might be) just to turn Hot Air into something completely different. If they wanted something completely different, they could have started something fresh with a lot less cost and competed against us instead.

PLEASE. They bought the site because it has a built-in audience, high traffic and is the place on the right for video aggregation.

Why would they buy it just to leave it alone? That’s idiotic. They want to parlay HA because they think they can grow it by making it the video feed arm of Townhall.

Here’s the problem – I hate Townhall. It’s always been the clearinghouse for conservative wannabes who can’t stand on their own. The original content is a puffed-up joke, the design is garbage and the forums are possibly the biggest embarrassment for the right online.

If we weren’t satisfied that we remained in position to maintain the current direction of Hot Air, neither of us would have stuck around.

Really, Ed? Where the hell were you going to go? How can you even suggest that was a viable option when everyday, you guys report how shot the economy is, how the media is swirling the drain? On top of it, Salem is trying to corner the online market, so your only real options were to either cozy up with Newscorp who’s on the verge of a firesale, Anschutz or start from scratch. Great choices.

Jazz’s conclusion is ass. Salem knows what I know – Townhall is insular and limited, the equivalent of Kos. ED and AP could have left for TH and if Michelle kept HA going – I would stay here like most others. It’s not the damn writers I’m following, it’s the format. The crossover with TH is not that deep because HA isn’t an echo chamber.

On one hand, I’m glad for Ed and AP because it’s nice to have the financial security. On the other, it sucks. Corporate practices tank online. If they didn’t, Salem wouldn’t be buying established properties.

MM knows talent, you two made this work. You are to be congratulated on YOUR accomplishment. I hope you both received the pay increases you deserve. Your exposure will be increasing just in time for max impact. Be sure to take the time to reflect when you began blogging all those years ago.

I have never been to townhall and I just did a quick trip over there. Gotta say the pop up ads kill that site, I got three on just the front page. I hope HA never gets that bad or I will quit visiting. It is extremely annoying.

I just hope that HotAir.com never gets as trollified as Townhall.com did in its early years. The trolls seemed to take over Townhall at one point. That’s when gave up on Townhall, and didn’t go back. I’m hoping HotAir and Townhall can learn from each other’s experience, and I wish them many years of success.

RBMN on February 18, 2010 at 10:44 AM

Looming question: Will Ed & AP still have the authority to pull out the ban hammer? Or will they need to go up the food chain now to get the okay?

Here’s the problem – I hate Townhall. It’s always been the clearinghouse for conservative wannabes who can’t stand on their own. The original content is a puffed-up joke, the design is garbage and the forums are possibly the biggest embarrassment for the right online.

Bingo. Townhall is junk. If they do anything to Hot Air, it will become junk also. They were stupid enough to continue the crappy website design, without fixing it, and were satisfied running an insular website. If they bought Hot Air in order to turn it into a video version of Townhall, then it will become junk.

Expect pop ups. Lots of pop ups, and slow javascript applications that screw up your computer, if Salem gets its way and Townhalls this website.

Frankly, the fact that Townhall is broken to this day indicates that they don’t have any idea what they’re doing. They’re morons.

Congratulations to MM. She had the vision for HA and look where it is now. Awesome.

That said, I have mixed feelings about the changes. I truly hope TH reads through the comment threads here and heeds some of the concerns and advice. For starters, PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE FORMAT & LAYOUT OF HOT AIR! Townhall.com is clunky and messy. The pop-ups are annoying and it’s hard to find a link to an actual article without mistakenly clicking an advertisement.

Will commenters still have to register? Will the commenting policies be the same? Will the “DUDE” links be censored? So many questions…….

Change is inevitable. Hopefully, this will be good change. I’m taking a wait and see approach.

It has been apparent for some time that Michelle had lost her heart/interest in Hot Air. I think that it had turned into something that she decided did not fit into her life anymore, in several ways. So it was time to simplify. That became more clear especially after the move to Colorado. The interview with Dobson, the non-responsiveness to comments made, reading a bit between the lines showed the direction that things would likely go in the near future. Then when the first-ever in-person staff meeting took place, the likelihood was there. I am happy for her and her family, and Ed and AP get to go in the direction they wish, which I think was somewhat different philosophically and perhaps spiritually than Michelle’s now. Best of luck to all.

Ed, I’m going to take a “wait and see” attitude on all of this news. There are a lot of questions I have that need time to be answered. Just please know that if they start turning HA into a flashing lights, carnival of advertising site, I’ll just mosey along.

With all due respect, Ed Morrissey IS HotAir. Without him it would fold up like a tent in a hurricane.

I go all the way back to the beginning. I come back because I enjoy the format and the posters, not the official commentary. They’ve been long periods where I’ve gone elsewhere because the topics being chosen were, lets say, not interesting to me.

Who owns HA is less important to me that the format, topics chosen and the posters who really make up HA. When that changes significantly to my dislike, I will go elsewhere just as many of you might.

Ed, any idea on how soon the next open registration will be? Many of us miss getalife and simplesimon.

OmahaConservative on February 18, 2010 at 10:21 AM

OC, did you bump your head today??? Those two earned their bans. How about some regular HA commenters that were banned for comments about MO? Upstater85 and the other one (can’t remember his moniker.)? Bleeds Blue was a decent lefty commenter.

Now excuse me while I listen to President Pantload who’s speaking once again on the boob tube.

Knucklehead on February 18, 2010 at 10:24 AM

Why don’t we just give him his own channel. Working title: RatTV.

They can install cameras all over the White House so that we can see what “the one” is doing every second of the day. Michelle Obama can have a workout show for fat kids. Bo Obama can even have a Sunday morning talk show. They can even strap a camera to Robert Gibbs (Gibbcam) so we can watch the Helen Thomas eye roll from the perspective of the podium.

If Salem leaves the editorial direction, as it is, to EM and AP, that’s great…and I believe them, but at the risk of sounding pessimistic I’m still not convinced they won’t try to spruce up the physical look of the site and ruin the feel in the process (ah but Moe…the dank!)

50% of the appeal of Hot Air is its reader comments, which are a cut above. I find the regulars here to be wittier, more articulate and intelligent than on any other blog I know. The trouble with cluttered “commercial” looking sites like Townhall.com is that the annoying clutter and pop ups seem to deter readers of Hot Air quality. Along with the open registration, what you get is long, unwieldy threads full of poorly articulated, misspelled comments that aren’t terribly interesting.

Hot Air’s comment system is, to me, perfect. The closed registration keeps the quality high. The comment format – linear, with simple user operated quote tags, works great. I HATE those bloated multi-nested threads like you get at Duff-Poo. If the new HA strays too far from these essential qualities then it’s screwed…so let’s hope it doesn’t. Honesty, I’ve looked long and hard to find a blog that’s as attractive, usable and relevant as Hot Air, for variety purposes, but I’ve never been able to find one. I think many would agree with me, which is why a lot of us are just a squeensy bit worried about the future. Fingers crossed.

You have no idea how much cash is involved? Dammit, Ed, you need a better agent. I work cheap.

You gotta figure that they wouldn’t change things all that much. It’s not like the “Hot Air” name is worth a lot on its own. Without the content, people would go elsewhere. What it could mean is that you guys go on other radio shows instead of your own, which sometimes pulls up to 150 listeners. So that’s good.

As long as Ed and AP are still around and retain content control for the most part things will be fine. I have been commenting on this site almost since inception. (I think it was the second open enrollment) and have enjoyed it tremendously. Change is always hard for us. I was devastated when Bryan left, (mostly because I hated to lose another Cowboy fan from the site) but AP hung around and Ed came along and things have been great since.

Here’s to continued success and growth for Hot Air, Allah and Ed. And I hope Michelle cleaned up on the deal!

Well, AP and Ed can always bolt and start anew in a heartbeat (and take us all with them) if they don’t like the new climate. But I’ll miss Michelle popping in on the threads every so often with zingers.

Townhall is basically a collection of columnists. Hot Air, thanks to Ed and (God bless) AP, is a proper blog. And there have been finds via the Green Room, too, which have made this a 21st century electronic newspaper. Salem has just acquired itself a booming property. As long as Salem is smart enough to let Ed and (God bless) AP continue doing what they’re doing, things will be fine and we can continue missing/not missing getalife, who I really hope has gotten a life.

I used to frequent Townhall quite a bit, but it seemed to go off the tracks to a certain extent. They were also plagued by technical issues – comments linked to incorrect columns *continually* (“hey, I think I’ll comment on this Mike Adams column… hey, when I click on the comments link it takes me to the comments section for Thomas Sowell’s column, wtf?”, etc).

Please don’t let them mess up the page with zillions of slow-loading graphical flourishes and blinking ads and a search that doesn’t work and dozens of amateurish writers that hide the insight and news under a layer of pointless noise.

Again, congratulations to you!! As I said yesterday, if you’re all happy, and confident with this, than I’m happy for you! :)

I think this is a large testament to Michelle as well. Her savvy, and quality of work, her choices in Ed, and Allah to head up Hot Air, prove she makes good sound decisions, and is respected in the news world. Congratulations all the way around.

Very good info…Thanks! It does put to reast a few concerns I had since hearing of this last night. Still wondering what changes ARE in the works, but as long as HotAir continues under Ed and AP, and with their vision and model, I’d have no doubt readership will only increase and quality will only improve.

The content loaded far too slowly, the ads loaded before content (I can appreciate having capitalism at work, but this prolonged the slow loads), and I disliked, intensely, that by default the articles were posted to the screen in two sections, rather than as a single item (which you could choose, but only after you viewed the first half of the divided article, so the net benefit was zero).

If this has already been asked I appologize,
Will Ed and AP still have control of the Ban Hammer? Will there be new contibutors from Townhall starting threads? Or will they have to start out in the Green Room and wait for promotion at AP’s pleasure? Will there still be controlled enrollment? Will Michelle still make guest appearances? And does this absolutely mean that there will be no chance of getting another “Vent”?

I haven’t found anything remotely as good as Hot Air out there. Ed and AP are right-leaning journalists/aggregators on steroids. They post new content with depth & analysis every 30-40 minutes some days, plus headline links. Who else does that?

The quality of the commenting (most times) on this site is what appeals to me. I spend a lot of time reading here and learn so much even in the comments, so I hope that good quality stays. I have been on other sites where I wouldn’t waste my time. I hit Drudge first and then straight here every day and am addicted. Congratulations to all involved, and keep up the good work!